I had a similar experience, I picked up a superstar kit and did not see a snare in the pick but 350.00 for a vintage 5 piece super mahogany with stand, standard depth toms was all I was after. Opened the boxes when they showed up and it had a mastercraft rosewood snare with it.

It is nice instrument and cutting thru even when low tuned, easy to record as well. However I am now recording with Cordia Snare as this nice steel drum lost quickly lot of snare wires... need to get steel and brass wires from Puresound company... EDIT: They do not produce this anymore, but similar can be found from stdrums after quick search.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirtysticks

I have a 6.5x14 Tama King Beat that is EXACTLY like this one... It has quickly become one of my favorites in my snare collection. Very versatile. sounds amazing!

Here's my 5 pc Rockstar DX I just picked up on Saturday. It's in pretty good shape. I wish I could tell what year it was made, there are numbers on the badges but I googled them and they don't translate to anything. It has a Tama double bass pedal, Zildjian hi hats, a 16" Sabian crash and the ride I can't tell what it is because the logo is faded. I'm just starting out, so I wanted something basic, but a little more heavy duty than the beginner brands. I'm real happy with it. I'd like to get a second crash, but otherwise it's perfect for me. Even the heads are fairly new.

Here's my 5 pc Rockstar DX I just picked up on Saturday. It's in pretty good shape. I wish I could tell what year it was made, there are numbers on the badges but I googled them and they don't translate to anything. It has a Tama double bass pedal, Zildjian hi hats, a 16" Sabian crash and the ride I can't tell what it is because the logo is faded. I'm just starting out, so I wanted something basic, but a little more heavy duty than the beginner brands. I'm real happy with it. I'd like to get a second crash, but otherwise it's perfect for me. Even the heads are fairly new.

Nice. I have the exact same kit but in Wine Red. They are pretty good kits. I think the year is '89.

Thanks!!!! The Scandinavian Birch looks like it is melting--outrageous! And the 8 plies of BOOBANGA do it right. And I hear it adds something to the sound--who knows? You know what a tremendous sound the Tama Bubinga is. Wow.
Right now, I am actually using the Tama snare that came with the kit. The Ultra Violet Microflake snare is a 12"x7" 8 ply maple Pearl Masterworks with black diecast hoops and a Dennis Chamber three way snare throw off. It is pretty tits. I ordered it right when they started the masterworks line. It is my side snare now.

The side snare pictured is one that Cadeson gave me back in 2003 at NAMM. It is a 12x5 slop maple. It actually sounds pretty cool. It has a tom mount on it.

I am in mutual admiration of your kit as well. The tom mounts are way cool, and the double kicks, whoah. It's a beauty.

Here's my '89 Rockstar. 12-13-16-22. Zildjian 14-16-20 Scimitar cymbals. I put the 12" over the bass when the head on the 13" split! My bands drummer Sam gave me a Remo Powerstroke 4 so I put that on it. The snare is terrible but am hoping to upgrade to a Gretsch Maple 12ply 14"x8" soon from thomann. Sound pretty good and is fun to play.

Here's my 5 pc Rockstar DX I just picked up on Saturday. It's in pretty good shape. I wish I could tell what year it was made, there are numbers on the badges but I googled them and they don't translate to anything. It has a Tama double bass pedal, Zildjian hi hats, a 16" Sabian crash and the ride I can't tell what it is because the logo is faded. I'm just starting out, so I wanted something basic, but a little more heavy duty than the beginner brands. I'm real happy with it. I'd like to get a second crash, but otherwise it's perfect for me. Even the heads are fairly new.

I had that exact kit.................bought it 88 / 89. Ended up in Fort Polk, LA needing cash, pawned it. Long story short, I deployed overseas and was not able to get it back. They got everything, drums, hardware, cymbals, etc. for $200. Still pisses me off to this day

I am in mutual admiration of your kit as well. The tom mounts are way cool, and the double kicks, whoah. It's a beauty.

Thank you, I appreciate the compliment! I like the streamlined look of the new tom mounts, one of the reasons I went with Tama. Does a nice job of showing off the finish and remaining subtle. I have more in store for my monster but I'll hold off on the surprise!

I just picked up this '89 (I think) Rockstar Pro shell set. I did a little research on them and found out that this is the best line of Rockstars you can get. So, I got them because they are a classic and I used to have a Rockstar set that I liked. I like the lugs on this older model, made in Japan, from the 80's. The serial number is pretty low too. 009200.

It's a little scuffed up. I might re-wrap it if I get that far. First I'm getting new heads all around. Probably Emperors over clear Ambs, or Amb X over Ambs. SuperKick II on the bass drum, of course. Next will come the hoop upgrade to 2.3mm powerhoops, re-sand and re-paint the wood hoops, and shine up all the hardware. Then, I'm thinking of upgrading the tom post to vintage Imperialstar style because that's the one thing about this kit I'm not so keen on. Luckily, I have a vintage Imperialstar tom post just laying around. I only need the mount bracket for the bass drum. Hopefully, that won't be too hard to find. Lastly, I'll re-wrap it with some Sparkle Brite or my favorite cheap plain white wrap from Precision Drums.

Update: So far I have the new 2.3mm rims, a 12, 13 & 16 set of coated emperors (which have the Pro Drum Shop logo on them BTW), and Pro Drums had an old vintage Imperialstar Bass drum mount sitting in their spare parts drawer. Got lucky there. I got the rims and talked to the guy at BoneYard about rewrapping it in my favorite white wrap from Precision Drums. My biggest hurdle will be getting those badges off safely intact. I'd prefer letting BoneYard do the wrapping part. He did a good job on my orphan kit. Well, I'll post an 'after' pic when it's done.

I've got a Starclassic 6 piece kit, and I'm trying to figure out all the manufacture dates, but it appears that all the drums have different serial numbers on the badges. Just wondering if I'm looking in the correct place, and if anyone knows of an online dater, or something easier than trying to get in touch with Tama's customer service. The supposed "minus ten from the first two numbers" rule that I see around every once in a while would date each drum to 1992, before the Starclassic line was released.

Crappy mobile-phone pics of my kit from last Sunday, as we were testing microphones to record a couple of songs in the studio where we normally rehearse.
You can see the studio's actual drum kit against one of the walls in the last pic :)

Slightly awkard cymbal positioning as we didn't have too much time to put the kit, mikes, mixer together in our allocated slot :-)

Here are some shots of my most recent acquisition... Tama Starclassic Birch Performer (Made in Japan)
-In the top post, you can sort of see my new ( to me) World Max Bronze Hawg 6.5x14 snare.
-In the rest of them, it is shown with my Yamaha Elvin Jones 7x14 Signature snare with wood hoops.